Google Sues Operators of Lighthouse Smishing Campaign

More Than 1M Victims Affected Globally Pooja Tikekar (@PoojaTikekar) • November 14, 2025

Tech giant Google sued the Chinese-speaking operators of a phishing-as-a-service operation in what it hopes will be a first step to deterring the prolific service behind hundreds of thousands of fraudulent websites used to steal credentials from millions of victims.

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The Lighthouse phishing is an offering from a Chinese financially-motivated group known as the Smishing Triad. Google calls the group the "Lighthouse Enterprise."

The company sued in Manhattan federal civil court 25 individuals it accused of developing and administering the platform, identifying targets, inundating victims with SMS spam messages and using stolen credentials to steal money from compromised bank accounts or obtain sensitive information from sources such as email inboxes.

Access to Lighthouse gives cybercriminals access to phishing templates, site-building tools and ...